August 4, 2006

“Hungry Ghost” month deals double blow to Asian business

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - It's the time of the year many
Chinese businesses dread -- the hungry ghost festival, when
families avoid moving house, couples postpone their wedding
plans and tourists shy away from beach resorts.

But businesses may be hit by a double whammy this year due
to an oddity in the Chinese lunar calendar that results in two
"seventh" months -- also known as the hungry ghost festival,
when the gates of hell open and the dead walk among the living.

The festival is widely observed by Chinese in Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, home to many Taoists and
Buddhists, who believe that the living are supposed to please
the ghosts by offering them food and burning paper effigies of
homes, maids and other daily items for spirits to use in the
after-life.

For those who maintain these traditional beliefs, all sorts
of activities may grind to a halt.

In modern but still superstitious Hong Kong, people have
begun to wind down their usually frenzied nightlife.

"All unusual activities must stop. I have ordered my
husband to go straight home after work," said Winnie To, an
executive at a foreign company.

The peculiarity of the double seventh month occurs because
the lunar calendar assigns an extra month every three years to
balance the lunar and solar cycle. This year, the Ghost Month
runs from July 25 to August 23, with the leap seventh month
stretching from August 24 to September 21.

In Taiwan, property and car sales usually enter a lull
period during the festival, prompting retailers to provide
generous offers or discounts to try to boost sales by appealing
to the younger generation which is less superstitious.

"When we were young, our parents used to tell us not to go
to the beach during the "hungry ghosts" festival because they
were afraid that we might be captured by ghosts in the water,"
said Kate Peng, 32, who owns a drinks stall in Taipei.

Few people in mainland China, especially in urban areas and
among the younger generation, follow ghost month traditions.
Many superstitions and traditional practices were stamped out
during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, because the Communists
frowned on them as relics of China's feudal past.

RARE OPPORTUNITY

But it's not all gloom for Chinese during these two months.

For some Singapore gamblers, this is a rare opportunity to
hunt for lucky numbers to play the "4-Digits" (4D) lottery.

"People will often use this chance to ask ghosts for
lottery numbers," said Lee Inn Peng, a Taoist medium who has
been practicing for 21 years. "These people are desperate, and
will try anything. Sometimes they are at the graveyards with
talismans, burning offerings asking for numbers."

In Singapore, where 75 percent of the population is ethnic
Chinese, business associations often run street performances,
known as "getai," to entertain the living and the dead.

Apart from inviting popular singers from overseas to
perform, these "getai" shows also include auctions for
auspicious items such as oranges, pineapples and charcoal --
which are associated with wealth in Chinese, and which are
stacked on gold-tinted plates and elaborately wrapped in red
ribbons.

"Some people will bid up to S$10,000 ($6,300) for these
items because they believe it will bring them good luck," said
Aaron Tan, who runs a company that organizes street
performances.

Low said these items are usually packed with a slip of
paper with several sets of four numbers, so that winners of the
bid can use those numbers to bet in the 4D lottery.

"There are people who have struck lottery on these numbers
and believe it is time to pay back the spirits who have helped
them, so they don't mind paying a high price at the auctions,"
Low said.